YoungProfsNet brochure November 2019

1. Environmental and Social
YoungProfsNet
Development Practitioners
YoungProfsNet:
cooperative learning and development
Introducing YoungProfsNet
Young environmental and social development practitioners join forces
to work on their professional development through YoungProfsNet.
The objective of this network is to provide an international on-line
platform for mutual and cooperative learning and development for
young environmental and social development professionals.
Anybody can join: environmental people (from ecologists to engineers
and energy and renewables experts), social development people (from
scientists to development experts) and those who work on sustainable
development and (corporate) social responsibility. We hope that
younger people will dominate but more experienced professionals can
make a valuable contribution.
Aspiring to reach the top in your profession
How does YoungProfsNet work ?
YoungProfsNet is a network working over the Internet. That work
may be done in various ways. Small teams can work together on
social development or environmental projects that will provide
learning. Or they may make environmental engineering designs
together. While projects may focus on a single country, project teams
will always be open to all members who wish to take part. And we
aim for our projects to come up with work products that can be
applied in the environmental and social development practice.
Providing a bridge to your future
We already have considerable experience in one-on-one consulting
between members and there are boundless opportunities to seek
second opinions or give informal advice and for guidance, coaching
and mentoring. While much of the work will be carried out over the
internet, we have held a number of successful local meetings in a
number of countries and we are looking for ways to revive them.

2. YoungProfsNet meeting in the Netherlands – September 2015
We recognise that projects may be carried out using another language
than English, e.g. Spanish, Portuguese or French, if that is easier for
members from relevant countries.
Communications will be in many forms: using our website
(www.youngprofsnet.org) and our pages on LinkedIn, Facebook and
Google+, by email and instant messaging systems such as Skype,
Hangouts or WhatsApp. We are experimenting using Slack
(www.slack.com) as a working and communications tool for our
network. This worked well for our Kenya project.
A short history
YoungProfsNet is an initiative of Eva Kimonye and Maarten Smies,
who in the spring of 2015 discussed how experienced
environmentalists could share their knowledge and experience with
young professionals. They reckoned that young professionals working
together would be able to gain learning and professional development
in a variety of ways.
They launched YoungProfsNet at the end of May 2015. The network
reached 1000 members on 23 October 2015 and on 18 August 2018
we welcomed our 3000th member. At present we have more than
4000 members in over 130 countries.
We carried out a project to review some 40 impact assessment reports
for petrol station projects in Kenya that the National Environment
Management Authority approved since 2013. We published the
project report on 1 October 2018. And we are working on a project to
redevelop the Environmental-Social-Health Risk and Impact
Management Process of the International Association of Oil and Gas
Producers and align this with established impact assessment practice.
We are looking for other projects to be developed in the course of
2019 covering other areas of interest than just impact assessment.
We are working on a database with information on the expertise of
individual members, their areas of interest and their areas of learning
and development interest. Such a database will be of great value to
facilitate professional contacts between members of YoungProfsNet.
Contact details will not be publicly available to protect the privacy of-
our members. We shall connect members on a case-by-case basis.
Organisation
YoungProfsNet does not have a legal status yet, but we are exploring
the various options for that. We have four Network Directors: Eva
Kimonye (Kenya, now in the United Arab Emirates), Carolina Casserly
(Argentina), Trupti Jain (India) and Maarten Smies (the Netherlands).
To develop and oversee our work we established a Programme
Council. We have appointed our first sixteen council members and we
expect the council to grow to some 50 members with a good gender,
professional and geographical diversity.
Are you interested in joining YoungProfsNet ?
You can join us by sending an email message to our network
administrator Maarten Smies (maarten@youngprofsnet.org) with
your name, country and instant messenger provider and user name or
by joining our group on LinkedIn (just type youngprofsnet in the
LinkedIn search bar, or: https://www.linkedin.com/groups
/8313692). Membership is free.

3. Areas of interest to YoungProfsNet
1. Environment
1.1 Environment and environmental research; ecosystem services
1.2 Ecology and biodiversity, nature conservation
1.3 Forestry and forest conservation
1.4 Agroecology
1.5 Environmental chemistry and toxicology
1.6 Environmental and ecological engineering
1.7 Environmental (bio)remediation and ecosystem restoration
1.8 Environmental quality: air and atmosphere
1.9 Environmental quality: soil and groundwater
1.10 Environmental quality: fresh water; rivers and lakes
1.11 Environmental quality: estuaries and coastal seas
1.12 Environmental quality: seas and oceans
2. Social development
2.1 Social (development) research
2.2 Social and community structure and functioning; social and
community development
2.3 Livelihood and employment: economic development and equity;
ecosystem services
2.4 Education
2.5 Gender and equality
2.6 Cultural, historical and archaeological resources and heritage
2.7 Youth participation
2.8 Community and public health
2.9 Vulnerability and marginalisation
2.10 Indigenous peoples and communities
2.11 Resettlement planning
3. General areas of interest
3.1 Environmental and social development policy, strategy and
management
3.2 (Environmental and social) management (systems); performance
measurement and reporting
3.3 Audit and (value assurance) review
3.4 Baseline surveys
3.5 Impact assessment and strategic impact assessment; environmental
and social compliance, control and protection during construction and
operations phases
3.6 Integrated assessments
3.7 Sustainability assessment and reporting
3.8 Site assessments
3.9 Life cycle analysis (LCA) and assessment
3.10 Governance and due diligence
3.11 Participation, engagement and consultation
3.12 Sustainable development and (corporate) social responsibility
3.13 Human rights and labour
3.14 Legal and regulatory (including performance standards and
safeguards)
3.15 International relations and diplomacy
3.16 Economic and financial instruments; circular economy
3.17 Occupational health and safety
3.18 Environmental and public health
3.19 Natural resources management
3.20 Water research, engineering and management
3.21 Water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH)
3.22 Energy and climate; GHG emissions; carbon footprint;
climate change mitigation, resilience and adaptation
3.23 Waste and waste management
3.24 Environmental and social development education and
learning and development
3.25 Environmental and social development communication
3.26 Earth observation, mapping and Geographical Information Systems
3.27 Emergency preparedness and response

4. YoungProfsNet organisation chart
Environmental and Social
YoungProfsNet
Development Practitioners
A cooperative learning and development
platform for young environmental and
social development professionals
www.youngprofsnet.org
LinkedIn: YoungProfsNet
Facebook: YoungProfsNet
contact: Maarten Smies
email: mail@youngprofsnet.org
phone: +31 70 326 8365
mobile: +31 6 2207 3021
skype: maartensmies
hangouts: maartensmies@gmail.com
facebook messenger: maartensmies
whatsapp: +31 6 2649 4940
PO Box 96992
2509 JJ The Hague
(the Netherlands)
1 November 2019
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